|
Hotels are this Easter busier than in previous years, with the Hoteliers’ Association attributing the fact to the Orthodox and Catholic churches this year celebrating at the same time.
Antonis Josifides, President of the Association’s Larnaca branch, told the Mail that “traffic exists both from the local and overseas markets. Locals are mainly booking for this weekend, while we have seen demand from tourists during the course of the entire week.”
However, he noted that hotel demand was not what it used to be years ago, with the island not doing well in terms of overall tourism. “As has been reported recently, Cyprus has become an expensive destination, with other places more competitive,” he said. According to Josifides, Easter is the third-busiest time of year when it comes to demand, following summer and the Christmas period.
“Paphos gets the biggest piece of the pie, with the town seeming to attract the British tourists, who are the majority. Larnaca is the least competitive as it is not featured in the brochures of the big tour operators and not promoted in alternative markets.”
Several hotels on the island reported varying degrees of business this week. The Four Seasons in Limassol currently has an occupancy rate of between 83 and 85 per cent, “a little higher than Easter 2006”, while the Hilton in Nicosia is currently seeing only 30 per cent occupancy.
“We are more of a business-orientated hotel so this figure is not really surprising,” a spokesman explained. | 
